Somnath

Somnath, an ancient town of Gujarat, in India, is situated on the south-west coast of the peninsula of Kathiawar, with a population of 6644, mostly Mohammedans. The town is defended by a strong fort and by a trench cut in the solid rock. It contains many ruins and memorials of Krishna, who died and was buried close by. Not far from the town stand the ruins of the celebrated Hindu temple of the idol Somnath. Its great sanctity and the fame of its enormous wealth attracted the imagination and avarice of the sultan Mahmud of Ghazni (1024). He took the temple after a desperate defence by its guardians, destroyed the sacred idol, and carried off its stores of jewels, and (according to the tradition) the wonderful temple gates. It is, however, more than doubtful whether the 'gates of Somnath' which Lord Ellenborough brought back from Afghanistan in 1842, and purposed to have restored to Somnath after having carried them in solemn procession through great part of Northern India, really are the gates of the ancient temple beside the Arabian Sea in Kathiawar. The gates that were brought from Afghanistan, and eventually placed in the arsenal of Agra, are made of cedar and richly carved, and measure 11 feet in height by 9 feet 6 inches in width.